Cured, no thanks to three different doctors..

As I wrote about last week I've been having some medical problems for the past month and a half. I was being treated for a bad UTI, but my white blood cell count was still reading high even after the bacteria stopped showing up in the results. So, obviously they gave me even stronger antibiotics. The antibiotics seemed to do little to knock down the white blood cell count and I went to a urologist at a big hospital to get treated. By that time I had finished my antibiotics, and strangely, as soon as I stopped the antibiotics I started to feel better, surprise surprise. When I went to the doctor, he suggested I take another urine sample, X-ray and an ultrasound.

While I was waiting to get my results, I did a little research online and saw some people who had the exact same symptoms as me. Various problems were suggested, such as kidney stones, upper kidney infection or bladder cancer. But the explanation that made the most sense to me was that in some people, antibiotics have been known to cause kidney inflammation, therefore causing discomfort in urination and high white blood cell counts. The only cure? Stop taking the antibiotics.

On Thursday, I went back to see the doctor. The X-ray and ultrasound came up clean, but the urine still had some white blood cells, he was about to recommend ANOTHER course of antibiotics, when I suggested the genius idea of checking one more time, since I've felt much better since getting off the antibiotics, and a week later I was feeling almost back to 100% health. Well, the urine test actually only took less than an hour to get the results, and he was surprised to see that the white blood cells went away without antibiotics. Even after that point, he still told me I could go on some antibiotics for a few days if I wanted to clear the last of the "infection" out. If I get better off antibiotics, and get worse on antibiotics, WHY WOULD I TAKE MORE ANTIBIOTICS??? I respectfully told him that I was happy without the antibiotics, and he seemed to agree with my decision. He wished me well, and I went on my way, thinking to myself that I was cured... no thanks to the doctors. So, the moral of the story is, it doesn't matter what country you're in. You need to do what makes your body feel the best and don't always take the doctors word for everything.